IP Gallery - It's driven us away from IPS to the competition

112 posts in this topic

First, let me say that we've purchased over 50 IPB licenses over the years. It's been great to see how the forum software has developed over the years since we started using it. . .from 2.1.7 to 3.3.1, IPB has proven time after time to be stable, reliable and rock solid. :smile:

Second, IPS support is top notch - there isn't another company out there that matches the quality of their work and service. :thumbsup:

Thirdly, the community here that supports each other with technical help and the people that offer both paid and free hooks/applications are superb. :wub:

With that being said though, IP Gallery is what has stopped us from further purchasing more IPB licenses. In fact, we've moved some of our current sites away from IPB to competing software.

The gallery is such an important part of a community and IP Gallery simply does not live up to a publishers or a users expectations. I'm not going to rehash here what's wrong with IP Gallery because it's been discussed over and over again.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I've only just begun to use it and am having a hard time with some of its..umm.."features".

Anyway IPS said they were focusing on board and content both of which have had two maintenance releases and board is approaching a second. My expectation is that gallery will be receiving plenty of attention within the next few months. I do hope that gallery is next on their schedule instead of blog. I know blog hasn't received much attention at all, but I don't think it really needs much improvement in comparison to the gallery problems.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Okay so what alternatives are there e.g. Vbulletin and what gallery or Zenforo and what gallery?

I'm not looking to change but I would be interested in seeing a better working gallery. About the best looking gallery system I've seen is piwigo. It's front end is much better than IP Gallery i.e. looks better and easier for people to view and or find what they want to see.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I've only just begun to use it and am having a hard time with some of its..umm.."features".

Anyway IPS said they were focusing on board and content both of which have had two maintenance releases and board is approaching a second. My expectation is that gallery will be receiving plenty of attention within the next few months. I do hope that gallery is next on their schedule instead of blog. I know blog hasn't received much attention at all, but I don't think it really needs much improvement in comparison to the gallery problems.

latest usable version of gallery is 3.2 :) I do not remember but this is probably something like 1.5 years old and the feature list is completly outdated.
Our aim is to create own sw for our gallery if IPS can not prepare such addon for us. My gallery today is 170k pictures in 500 categories and 600k comments was done

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The gallery is such an important part of a community and IP Gallery simply does not live up to a publishers or a users expectations. I'm not going to rehash here what's wrong with IP Gallery because it's been discussed over and over again.

If you're really expecting something to change with it, then you should be giving IPS some specifics. Lots of things have been mentioned in various topics, what is it about the current IP.Gallery that you have issues with?

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I think Michael there have been numerous topics where users were listing their comments, requirements and ideas of how the gallery could be further improved and I am sure IP have analysed all of those comments and ideas and had internal brainstorming regarding which are frequent or logical and should be prioritized. I don't see point in requesting us to make some sort of similar list again.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Yes, I get that, and IPS knows there have been all of those topics (they do read them). What I'm saying is that simply restating that there are all these issues you have doesn't help at all. I don't make use of IP.Gallery, so I don't pay attention too much to the feedback folks give about it, but is there an actual consensus among members about what needs to change, or is it just a few dozen people people each giving their own opinions?

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Yes, I get that, and IPS knows there have been all of those topics (they do read them). What I'm saying is that simply restating that there are all these issues you have doesn't help at all. I don't make use of IP.Gallery, so I don't pay attention too much to the feedback folks give about it, but is there an actual consensus among members about what needs to change, or is it just a few dozen people people each giving their own opinions?

Well I've only just started using it so I'm in the same boat as you, but as I run into issues I post about them here. I know that everyone agrees upon how cover photos should work. Also everyone agrees on there being more admin control. For example members shouldn't be allowed to move their albums around however they want, we should be allowed to restrict member albums to certain container albums.

Also while I agree that the OP not stating his own personal gripes isn't very effective I think this is a special case. He's stating that he agrees with all the feedback that's been posted and is saying that as a customer who has purchased more than 50 licenses (I don't see why this is important but he seems to think it gives his argument more credibility) he's disappointed with the lack of attention gallery has received and is now looking for an alternate solution because of how IPS failed to put out.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I agree with Michael. As a former Product Manager for multiple software applications, I can tell you that the least useful feedback I would get on my products were those that provided little to no specifics. Not to imply that's what you are doing. I am just suggesting that you make it easier for them to implement changes and enhancements to the product by being more specific. Provide suggestions on how you or your users would expect a particular feature to work.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The importance of giving specifics in this thread has been duly noted so can you provide a time line for this attention to gallery and when something tangible will be available/released ? 1 month,2 months before IBP 4.0 ? Honestly, the gallery issue has been what has kept me on hold from upgrading.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

No offense, but am I supposed to believe that? It's not the first time a dev said that. I don't know, ever since gallery 4 hit... my IPS experience has been less than satisfactory.

I haven't been able to upgrade my forum and rest of softwares because I am currently stuck with gallery 3.2. I did try test runs with a separate installtions to test galley 4.x series. The least you guys could have done is make gallery 3.2 compatible with rest of newer platform, but instead you shut some (or major) of gallery users out who wanted to keep using 3.2.

I've reviewd my licenses but probably won't the next time. The reason I moved from Vb was because of the gallery.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

To be fair, I totally understand the frustration many folks have experienced with the IP.G 4.x line.

But frustration in a product direction is no reason to imply IPS staff are anything less than truthful. They may often be unable to provide details (for very good reasons), and yes, they may sometimes have a design vision that doesn't match what everyone wants all the time. Frankly, it's impossible to accomplish that last. ;)

The one thing that makes IPS different than most web software companies/organizations I've been involved with is that they DO listen. And I don't think I've ever seen anyone from the IPS staff lie to the community. Not answering is not lying. And having an honest difference of opinion about ideal functionality is NOT the same thing as misrepresenting.

Do I think that IP.G needs some MAJOR changes? You bet. Am I sure that the coming changes will fix IP.G for the way my community wants to use it? Nope. But I'm pretty sure the copious threads in this forum have been read and a list of issues compiled from them. The one thing I'm totally sure of is that if Charles says IP.G is the next one to get dev focus, than that's exactly what they are working on as we post on this very topic. Given some of the great changes that have come in the latest versions of IP.Board and IP.C, I have reasonable hope that the next generation IP.G will be a sizable improvement. :)

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

No offense, but am I supposed to believe that? It's not the first time a dev said that. I don't know, ever since gallery 4 hit... my IPS experience has been less than satisfactory.

I haven't been able to upgrade my forum and rest of softwares because I am currently stuck with gallery 3.2. I did try test runs with a separate installtions to test galley 4.x series. The least you guys could have done is make gallery 3.2 compatible with rest of newer platform, but instead you shut some (or major) of gallery users out who wanted to keep using 3.2.

I've reviewd my licenses but probably won't the next time. The reason I moved from Vb was because of the gallery.

I have always taken IPS at their word and believe that they will make changes to the gallery as numerous people have been asking.